Conservative Economist: 'Find the Unemployed and Hire Them'

[LuckyTheDog]

A new WPA? A new CCC? Sounds good to me.

Let's put this gently: economist Kevin Hassett is no Keynesian.

Hassett, the director of economic-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and an economic adviser to Sen. John McCain, recent attacked President Obama's economic plan as "voodoo economics," claiming "the biggest Keynesian stimulus in U.S. history was a bust."

But when I got him on the phone to talk about the unemployment crisis, he struck a different tone. His problem with the stimulus wasn't that government spending inherently fails to grow jobs and the economy. The problem, he said, was that Obama's stimulus was not direct enough.

With the Recovery Act, the White House eschewed direct hiring and aimed instead to raise overall economic output in the hope that more activity would lead to more demand, which would lead to more hires. "Look at the stimulus and the number of jobs we've actually created, and it comes out to a couple million bucks per job created," Hassett told me.

"My idea is simpler. Find the unemployed and hire them."

More: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/08/conservative-economist-find-the-unemployed-and-hire-them/62100/

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Hope someone in the Obama administration reads this...BEFORE November

[Angry Dragon]

2. It seems that Obama thinks if he gives money to the people

that caused a large part of the mess we are in
that they will turn around and see the light
and do the right thing.

Instead they just fill their pockets more and more.

[Edweird]

3. I seem to recall Obama making a statement about how what worked for our grandfathers won't work now.

Or something to that effect. Basically he was saying 'forget about a WPA or CCC'. It appears that all we have to look forward to are more corporate bail outs and trickle down.

[applegrove]

4. Wow. Big News! A conservative actually sees unemployment as a bad thing and

not as a good way to break the back of unions!!! You saw it here first folks. Remember the day.

I wonder how long before his conservative brothers and sisters silence him.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Many of us said this as well

The stim was not big enough or direct enough, and it did work... but it is gone.

[Hannah Bell]

6. indirect stimulus funnels money directly to corps. direct stimulus funds money indirectly to corps

but some gets lost on the way -- into savings, or small businesses, or the neighborhood kid's lawnmowing business.

corps prefer to be stimulated directly.